Brian Hamel

Brian Hamel serves as the Executive Director, lead facilitator, and curriculum creator at Recovery Coach Academy Canada (RCAC), where he combines lived experience, systems knowledge, and unapologetic passion to shape the future of recovery coaching across Alberta. Known for his loud presence, expressive delivery, and ability to speak truth with care, Brian brings energy and realness into every space he enters, whether it’s a training room, a boardroom, or a recovery community.

With a professional background in hospitality coordination and recovery center programming, Brian understands what it means to create environments that are welcoming, human, and deeply responsive to people’s needs. He has led the development of RCAC’s training curriculum, delivered throughout Alberta through virtual cohorts, in-person sessions, and collaborative partnerships. He works closely with governments, community-based organizations, and recovery communities to integrate recovery coaches into frontline, peer-led, and interdisciplinary roles.

Brian is especially known for his work advancing ethical standards, recovery coach supervision models, and culturally responsive approaches rooted in dignity and autonomy. Under his leadership, RCAC has become a leading force in Alberta’s recovery landscape, focused exclusively on developing recovery coaches within a Recovery Oriented System of Care. His programs are grounded in compassion, clarity, and curiosity, with an unwavering commitment to keeping recovery human, simple, and real.

With lived experience at the center of his leadership, Brian brings a perspective that bridges systems with people. He builds programs that not only inform but transform. Whether he’s supporting the development of a peer workforce, challenging outdated views of sobriety, or redefining what recovery can look like in Alberta, Brian’s work is driven by one core belief: that everyone deserves to heal in community, with kindness, and with hope.